t-14 metal pole

[Guest]

Toying with the idea of a metal pole. Does anyone know how well these will hold up to wind? We get some pretty nasty storms here. Any info would be helpful

[eyeamtheman]

A metal pole will certainly last longer than a wooden one. If you're willing to spend the money, I use a 2" ID galvenized pole, and it seems more than strong enough..... bought a new one just this year and it was just over 50 bucks....
Good luck !!

[John Barrow]

Jeff, Troyer sells and recommends a 3 inch metal pole, or you can get one from an indutrial steel vendor in your location. People here in So. Texas along the coast where we always have winds and sometimes real strong ones, mount the T-14 on a 3 inch galvanized pole. It is very heavy and will withstand a tremendous wind. I have LoneStar aluminum houses mounted on solid two inch poles. They have done fine, but they are not nearly as heavy as the T-14. Check out PMCA's store and look at the metal system that they sell.

Good luck this season.

[TrkrBob1949]

I have built 6 wooden T-14s made out of western cedar with aluminum roofs and one all aluminum T-14. The wooden houses were mounted on 21' long galvanized water pipe 1 1/2" inside diameter. The wall thickness was 1/8". They were reinforced with a 10' section of 1" diameter EMT that was bolted to the bottom inside half of the pole. This was to add increased rigidity to the pole and hopefully prevent the pole assembly from bending in high winds due to the heavy weight of the wooden T-14s. The all aluminum house was mounted on a 21' section of 1 1/4" inside diameter galvanized water pipe with an inside sleeve of a 10' section of 3/4" EMT. All of these houses were bent at one time or another by high winds at my colony site. Believe it or not, despite the fact that it was the lightest house, the aluminum T-14 was bent the worst, almost to the ground, by the high winds. I shortened the height of 4 of the poles to 16' and put them back in the ground. So far they are still standing. I intend to put the remaining house (one was destroyed in an accident) on a 19' section of 3" inside diameter galvanized square tubing. The wall thickness is 1/8". I'm hoping this is the combination that will solve my pole problems.

How deep are your pockets? If you don't mind spending the money, the best metal pole for a wooden T-14 is 3" tempered aluminum. My buddy Steve Kronkey recently purchased two of them that were designed for use as a gourd rack. They have an aluminum sleeve that slides up and down the pole with the use of a brake winch. We are building 2 wooden T-14s to be placed at schools and I plan to bolt them to the sleeves of the poles. For what it's worth, I build most of my martin housing and I consider these poles to be technological marvels. They are the creme la creme and don't sell for "chump change." But you get what you pay for.....

[Sparky]

I'm using the 2 piece aluminum 3" square pole and T-14 adapter kit from the PMCA store. It has taken some Hurricane force winds with no problems. If I had a way of getting a one piece pole to the house, I would prefer that to the 2 piece, but it works fine.

[Guest]

Jeff,
I have two t-14's mounted on 2 inch galvanized rigid pipe. Both pieces are 18 feet long with a little more than three feet of that in the ground. With about eight inches of the pipe extending above the house, this puts the top of the t-14 at about fourteen and a half feet. So far both houses have survived some whamboozy thunderstorms with no damage to the poles. One storm in particular had straight line winds of over 70 miles an hour. Of course there is always the windstorm that will wreck your set up no matter how stout it is, but if a windstorm bends a piece of 2 inch rigid pipe, you are probably going to have bigger problems than your martin house to deal with.

[Guest]

Thanks for the info. I was looking at the pole on the pmc website but I have a friend that works at a steel yard so I might also see if he can set me up. I do know it is getting harder to lower my t-14 because it doesn't matter what I did to prevent my wooden pole from warping it still is.

[Guest]

By preference I would use a schedule 40 2" galvanized pipe. Costs a fortune. I have successfully used a 2" electrical conduit pipe that can be purchased at home hardware for 20-25 10foot length. I purchase the pipe at a scrap yard for $5 each. Depending on the soil I use 1.5 or 2 pieces. In soft terrain I drive the 1st piece into the ground so that 3 -4 project above the ground; I join both section together using a square 5 foot 1 1/2 steel pipe placed inside and bolted by 2 3/8 screws per section (top ones also attach the winch to the post.
In the rocky derail I use a much lunger piece of 1 1/2 pipe first with 5 foot section of conduit - approx. 3 feet projecting.
A bag or 2 of cement doesn't hurt. In my case the whole installation costs less than $20. Considering how many poles I "plant" this is my only viable option.

[Guest]

My new pipe is a 2" schedule 80, my old pipe was a 1.5 schedule 80 pipe.
Both were in in the ground, inside a sleeve pipe , 3 foot.
Both were 21 foot total length.
Both houses sat higher than the top of the pole

My old pipe and old t-14 was fine, although it blew and swayed in the wind a lot but was fine for 2.5 years.
When I put up my new t-22 that weighs over 110 pounds, it was too much coupled with a mini tornado last year.

So far the new pipe is holding up much better, it was way windy the other day already and it sways much less.
Like most people said, 2" is better, like always...bigger is better.

Pics of my setup and the house laying over after a big storm are here.
http://webpages.charter.net/haeffkr/martins/

Let me know if you have any more questions.
thanks Kevin

[Flylow]

Jeff I just put up a 16' tall 3" square 1/8" thick steel pole with gusets welded on the bottom 8" square plate and bolted to a concrete pad. I love it and the pole only cost $55. I used the Hazer system for the house mount that you can find plans on the internet. My T14s are around 100 lbs.